Photo taken by MLG.tv

Execution:

Many have described Armada as the European Mew2King. Historically he has been incredibly precise, with vicious edgeguards, a devastating punish game, and impeccable defense. In a metagame heavily dominated by space animals, this will allow him to plow through the competition much easier, since as a Peach main, the fast fallers can’t really do the same thing to him. Armada also has incredible luck with Stitchfaces, which are always a factor.

Adaptability:

However, unlike Mew2King’s robot exterior, Armada has always shown an uncanny ability to adapt to situations. Sure sometimes (especially earlier in his career, like Genesis 1) players would take game one, but then he would go and three stock them on their counterpick. His download speeds are impeccable, looking like FiOS. The fact that MLG’s pro bracket is 3 out of 5 only aids him, as it gives him more time to adapt to his opponent. I fully believe that if his set with PPMD at SKTAR was 3/5 he would have won. Armada has struggled against battling both PP’s Falco and Marth when he has to switch between them, but always has adapted in the long run.

Experience:

Traditionally Armada was very much isolated from top players in Sweden, with no one to really challenge him except for recently Leffen. He stated this is part of why he lost his fire in 2013; travelling to America once or twice a year for competition is not much motivation to keep at the top of his game. However, by the time MLG rolls around he will have been in the US for over three weeks, playing in at least three tournaments (SKTAR, SWEET, SSS) with top caliber players at each. I know from personal experience how much a difference playing against skilled players outside your region can be; just a weekend in Philly playing with Zhu and Cactuar was enough to shake off four months in three days. Armada will have had three weeks, and not just playing against two players, but most of the important regions in the country. We saw how much more crisp he was in the week between SKTAR and SWEET; how much will he improve now that he’s playing with people like M2K on a regular basis? That’s something he has never really had in the past, and it’s mildly terrifying when you consider how incredibly talented he is initially.

Armada will continue to polish his Peach; his out of shield game will become more on point, allowing him to survive and punish aggressive spacie shield pressure. I believe he may also take a page out of my book and incorporate power shielding into his game; Peach can power shield approaches into down smash or nair with devastating results for fast fallers; we saw him power shield a lot of approaches at SWEET. As Peach does not suffer the same punish game that fast fallers do, I find it unlikely for Mango, Mew2King, or PPMD to beat him, and I think Armada can re-learn to handle PP’s Marth. The only threats to him is Leffen, due to his knowledge of his style, though by this point I feel Armada will have regained his viciousness against Fox to the point where he can take Leffen, Hungrybox, who may have finally figured out how to fight Young Link, or another top Peach player such as MacD, as Armada has historically struggled in the match up, but the likelihood of one of us making it into that pro bracket is rough.

DoH